Hi!
We're in the process of migrating Debian for sparc64 from SILO to GRUB
as GRUB upstream is adding support for modern SPARC machines thanks to
the work of Eric Snowberg from Oracle.
In order to make sure GRUB works on all machines supported by the sparc64
port, we need your help to test GRUB on your particular hardware, the older
your machine, the better.
So, in order to help us, please follow the guide below to install GRUB to
replace SILO as your boot loader.
NOTE: If your system doesn't boot after installing GRUB, don't panic. Use
the current Debian sparc64 installation image and boot into rescue
mode by typing "rescue". Then chroot into your installed system and
just run "silo -t -f" to restore SILO on your machine.
1. Install the grub2 package:
root@andi:~# apt install grub2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
grub-common grub-ieee1275 grub-ieee1275-bin grub2-common libfreetype6 libfuse2 libpng16-16 os-prober
Suggested packages:
multiboot-doc xorriso desktop-base console-setup fuse
The following NEW packages will be installed:
grub-common grub-ieee1275 grub-ieee1275-bin grub2 grub2-common libfreetype6 libfuse2 libpng16-16 os-prober
0 upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,556 kB of archives.
After this operation, 23.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports unstable/main sparc64 libpng16-16 sparc64 1.6.34-1 [271 kB]
(...)
Creating config file /etc/default/grub with new version
Setting up grub2 (2.02-2+sparc64.3) ...
root@andi:~#
2. Make sure you have version 2.02-2+sparc64.3
root@andi:~# apt-cache show grub2 |grep Version
Version: 2.02-2+sparc64.3
root@andi:~#
3. Find your boot partition:
root@andi:~# mount |grep /boot
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
root@andi:~#
If you don't have one but just one root file system, grep for " / " instead
4. Install grub into your boot partition:
root@andi:~# grub-install --force --skip-fs-probe /dev/sda1
Installing for sparc64-ieee1275 platform.
grub-install: warning: Discarding improperly nested partition (hostdisk//dev/sda,sun1,sun2).
grub-install: warning: Discarding improperly nested partition (hostdisk//dev/sda,sun1,sun4).
grub-install: warning: Attempting to install GRUB to a disk with multiple partition labels. This is not supported yet..
grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
Installation finished. No error reported.
root@andi:~#
Note: If you are using GPT partition tables instead of Sun partition
tables, you need to install GRUB into /dev/sda
(see: https://github.com/esnowberg/grub2-sparc/wiki)
5. Run update-grub:
root@andi:~# update-grub
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.0-1-sparc64-smp
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.14.0-1-sparc64-smp
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.0-trunk-sparc64-smp
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.14.0-trunk-sparc64-smp
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.0-rc7-sparc64-smp
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.14.0-rc7-sparc64-smp
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.0-rc5-sparc64-smp
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.14.0-rc5-sparc64-smp
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.12.0-rc1-sparc64-smp
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.12.0-rc1-sparc64-smp
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.11.0-trunk-sparc64-smp
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.11.0-trunk-sparc64-smp
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-trunk-sparc64-smp
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.10.0-trunk-sparc64-smp
Found Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid on /dev/md0p1
done
root@andi:~#
6. Reboot:
root@andi:~#
7. Report back to the list and include your hardware and partition setup
Thanks,
Adrian